I have always taken a lot of satisfaction from my work as a headhunter and have always strived to ensure I live up to the desire to find the right people, but importantly also ensure it's the right job for them.
One case in point was the approach I made to Roger Morris on behalf of Alan Cleary and Ian Lonergan at Precise Mortgages.
Roger was playing an instrumental role in driving business volume for Affirmative and was developing a personal brand reputation akin to the one he had earned whilst building em-Financial.
Anyone who knows Roger will understand he is a man with a strong personal value set and one of those character traits is his sense of loyalty. Whilst I knew I had a compelling opportunity to present to him, I was also respectful of how Roger felt about the owners of Affirmative for the opportunity they had given him
I liken the ensuing dialogue to when a football manager gets offered the chance to move to a bigger club and despite having a commitment to where they are and connectivity with the whole infrastructure there is still a sense of wanting to the chance to take an ambitious team to levels beyond where you might currently be managing.
The challenge to Roger was to be an integral part in taking Precise into the Premier League in the bridging space and shape with the high quality management team the best way to enter a market that was warming up whilst complementing the Precise proposition in the residential and buy-to-let market.
The time invested by Ian, Alan and others in the Precise senior management team helped give Roger the sense of how the business could evolve and this was vital in countering his loyalty to Affirmative.
There will always be cynics that use the Premiership analogy and suggest it was the 'financial carrot' that made that it easy to forgo the loyalty of such comments and in my opinion insult Roger's character ( I'm sure the sector would be testimony to the fact that there are few more genuine guys around, making the cynics stand out as looking for any 'stone to throw').
Undoubtedly my job is to work with both parties and help them all make an informed decision on what is the right package - and ultimately help pinpoint how what is being spent represents value for money.
Naturally, Roger was given an uplift to move but the incentive he really wanted was to work with a firm committed to genuinely be a champion of the intermediary and therefore enabled Roger to be in the role he loves, driving growth in the packager and broker market
So having managed the exit and respected the restricted covenants from his prior employer Roger has now spent 15 months working with Precise and helping it get promoted into the Premier League.
What I have really enjoyed seeing is how Roger has focussed his unbelievable energy towards helping intermediaries grow their business and has already spent countless hours this year leading workshops on the subject of how to grow client banks and getting the most from a client bank.
Content has included:
• How to successfully identify market growth.
• Professional introduction support.
• Simple cross sell tips to deliver amazing results.
• Specialist lending market understanding.
• A tool box of marketing letters, telephone scripts and adverts to be able to immediately implement the ideas into practise.
Such is the value that Roger provides naturally Precise has benefited from the increased business these firms find from Roger's commercial suggestions.
They see the commitment to the relationship and work to reciprocate and it is no coincidence therefore that intermediaries are realising Precise's passion for working with them and not being solely focussed upon what's in it for them. The knock-on effect is that Precise has seen its volumes grow in both near prime and buy-to-let increase too.
Personally, I have the reward of knowing the project I delivered on that took Roger to Precise has not only given Precise massive value but likewise the sector too and my client, who yes, do pay healthy fees for a job well done, has positioned themselves in the top five of the sector from a standing start
Roger will be the first to admit there is a Premiership team at Precise and the embedded understanding of the intermediary sector at the core of the Precise ethos has allowed him to believe totally in the support the Board has to for his input about the bridging sector, and as with football they backed him in the 'transfer market' by signing the sought after Gareth Lewis.
The irony of Gareth's appointment is that he was involved in the original process that saw Roger appointed and magnamously accepted he had come second to one of only two people he would have accepted coming second to.
Given the impression Gareth created in the time he spent with Ian and Alan and others in the business my brief was to keep Gareth informed of Precise's progress so that a dialogue could be maintained.
With Roger on board the initial testing of the market from Precise showed they had to work harder in a number of areas before they could accelerate the growth and this delayed the timing of being in a position where bringing Gareth on board was logical for both Gareth himself and the business. The fly in the ointment was that with this time lag Gareth had seen an opportunity to move on from Cheval and shape the sales strategy of Tiuta.
The discussions with Gareth were again honest and transparent and I know he took a great deal of comfort from Roger's assurances that the business was listening and responding to the feedback and his input ensuring it was a business that was not just aiming to achieve but changing enough to execute those plans
I had benefited from having a year or so to get to know Gareth and again felt that the move was in keeping with his career aims and could see how the internal dynamics could improve the business
Other missing pieces in the jigsaw that I was briefed to identify were a head of underwriting along with a specialist underwriter, and through research and asking questions of contacts, I found Richard and Saul ,both of whom felt they could use their experiences to good effect in helping shape the operational area of the business. I know that Roger believes these guys have been essential in underpinning the work done by Gareth, Claire and himself in the field
The way the business has evolved and showed how it is keen to be a market leader gives me a great amount of personal satisfaction and reflects well on what I’ve always been passionate about- to always look for the best outcomes, not just the easiest outcome, which is often so typical of recruitment
Here’s a selection of intermediary feedback about the workshops.
Darren Newton, Mortgage Force
"I have always called Roger over the years to place any specialist cases or asked for business advice and he has never failed me yet. So when he was doing one of his workshops local to me I thought I would go along not sure of what I would have got out of the event and not certain he could help me in regards professional introductions. But his focus on Bridging or Short Term Lending was amazing, his professional process for untapping letting Agents was just brilliant. I have now tied up all the independent letting agents local to me. The first one I did the annual review with was in the process of buying a portfolio of 15 properties, needed Bridging for time and speed, need the re-mortgages, needed buildings insurance and liked the idea of life assurance - not a bad gross income to start the process of with!"
Simon Juniper, managing director, of packager Only Bridging
"I cannot find words that reflect the help Roger has given to me over the last 12 months winning the countries top award for best broker this week at the Bridging and Commercial Awards proved just how far we have come in the last year. The biggest thing he did for me was to take Only Bridging on the road nationally - no other bridging packager has ever done this. By doing our own workshops by getting brokers to come along and listen to what we had to say, explaining how bridging short term lending works was amazing. We haven't looked back since then and our workflow has increased week on week."
